From GODWIN TSA, Abuja
Songs of victory from jubilant party supporters yesterday trailed the judgment of a Federal High Court, which upheld the election of Governor Idris Wada as the governor of Kogi State on the ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The court dismissed the application brought by a chieftain of the party, Jibrin Isah Echocho, seeking to invalidate Wada’s election.
In the application, Echocho argued that he was the winner of the first primary election conducted by the party and that his name was submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
After series of adjournments, Justice Abdul Kafarati in his judgement yesterday, held that the subject matter of Echocho’s suit was the December 3, 2011 governorship election in Kogi State, saying the issue to be determined was whether the court had jurisdiction to entertain the suit and whether the plaintiff had locus having not participated in the said election.
The court held that the plaintiff instituted his suit more than two months after election was conducted and concluded, saying the governor had been inaugurated, thereby making the case to assume the status of a post-election matter.
Based on that premise, the court declined jurisdiction to entertain the matter and held that the suit be directed to the Kogi State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal and not a regular court.
Furthermore, the court held that the plaintiff did not have the locus to institute an action to challenge the said election because he never participated in it.
The court in turn dismissed the suit for being an abuse of court process and awarded the cost of N100,000 against the plaintiff.
Before the emergence of Wada as the standard bearer of the PDP in the Kogi State governorship election of December 3, 2011, Echocho emerged as the governorship candidate of the party in the January 9, 2011 governorship primary election held at the Lokoja township stadium and was so returned as the flag bearer of the party for the April 26, 2011 general election.
However, the victory of Echocho was short lived as the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja on February 23, 2011 elongated the tenure of five state governors beyond May 29, 2011, Kogi State inclusive.
The Court of Appeal had also ruled that the tenure of five governors, including that of Kogi State, had not expired, hence the postponement of the governorship election in Kogi State and Adamawa, Bayelsa, Sokoto and Cross River States.
However, INEC evoked the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court in Appeal No: SC/357/2011, vide its notice of Appeal dated July 14, 2011, asking the court not only to set aside the judgments of the Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal elongating the tenure of the governors but also to dismiss their claim.
The Supreme Court acceded to INEC’s appeal and granted all its reliefs/prayers on January 27, stating clearly that the tenure of former Governor Ibrahim Idris and four others ended on the May 2011.
This led Echocho, through his counsel, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), to ask the court to determine whether having regard to the combined effects of Sections 26(1), 26(2), 87(1) 87(2) (3) and (4)(b) of the Electoral Act 2010 as amended, the valid and due nomination of the plaintiff (Echocho) and the submission of his name by the PDP, 1st defendant, to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as the party’s governorship candidate in the Kogi State 2011 governorship election could be vitiated by the postponement of the election from April 26 to December 3, 2011.
He also asked the court to determine whether the PDP could validly had conducted another special state congress for the governorship primary election in September 2011 having sent his name to INEC as its rightful candidate.
He posited that his name could not be substituted with any other except as provided for in Section 33 of the Electoral Act as amended.
While countering the reliefs sought by Echocho, Chris Uche (SAN), counsel for Governor Wada said: “There is nothing unique about the plaintiff’s case because there is a precedence of a similar misadventure, which recently ended in misfortune at the Supreme Court.”
Citing the recent case of Timi Sylva vs PDP, Uche maintained that every right claimed by Echocho for having won the January primaries had been extinguished by the Supreme Court judgment as the two cases were similar in every material particular.
Sylva’s dispute was against the PDP for refusing to allow him to contest the party primaries of November 19, 2011 for the governorship election of February 12, 2012 while Echocho’s case challenged INEC’s action of conducting an election during the pendency of its own suit against the tenure elongation.
Sylva’s cause of action therefore was hinged on the refusal of his party to publish his name as an aspirant for the primary election, hence the Supreme Court concluded that it was a pre-primary election matter.
Echocho had further argued that while Sylva was involved and benefitted from the tenure elongation case, which led to the re-scheduling of the governorship election that should have been conducted alongside other elections during the April 2011 general election, he was at no time a party to the tenure elongation suit.
He said more so, Sylva’s case was not hinged on the January 27 judgment of the Supreme Court, which voided the tenure elongation, arguing that it was therefore fundamentally different.
Besides, he said Kogi was the only state where the sitting governor did not seek re-election among the five states involved in the tenure elongation case, adding that none of the candidates was a party to the tenure elongation suit.
He further argued that after INEC had filed a notice of appeal at the Supreme Court on July 14, 2011, its authorities erroneously directed the parties to conduct another primary on September 22, 2011.
But, counsel to INEC, led by Adegboyega Awomolo (SAN), in their submission to Echocho’s prayers, said the court lacked jurisdiction to entertain the matter because the plaintiff was asking the court to interpret the judgement of the Supreme Court on tenure elongation and also asking it to give a consequential order.
SOURCE: 30 August 2012.
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